lamb

English Online Dictionary. What means lamb‎? What does lamb mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English lamb, from Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₁l̥h₁onbʰos, enlargement of *h₁elh₁én, ultimately from *h₁el-.

See also Dutch lam, German Lamm, Bavarian Lamperl, Danish lam, Swedish lamm, Finnish lammas, Scottish Gaelic lon (“elk”), Ancient Greek ἔλαφος (élaphos, “red deer”). More at elk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /læm/
  • (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): [leəm]
• Rhymes: -æm

Noun

lamb (countable and uncountable, plural lambs or (both dialectal) lamber or lambren)

2. A young sheep.

   Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as snow.

   Synonym: sheepling

3. (obsolete) A young goat; a kid.
   • The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Exodus 12:5: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:”
4. (uncountable) The flesh of a lamb or sheep used as food.
5. (figuratively) A person who is meek, docile and easily led.
6. Lambskin.
7. A simple, unsophisticated person.
8. (finance, slang) One who ignorantly speculates on the stock exchange and is victimized.
9. (slang) A fan of American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Mariah Carey (born 1969).

   Holonym: Lambily

   Alternative form: Lamb

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:lamb.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

lamb (third-person singular simple present lambs, present participle lambing, simple past and past participle lambed)

1. (intransitive) Of a sheep, to give birth.
2. (transitive or intransitive) To assist (sheep) to give birth.

Translations

Anagrams

• ALBM, BAML, BLAM, LBMA, balm, blam

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Noun

lamb n (genitive singular lambs, plural lomb)

1. lamb (both the animal and meat)
2. kid (baby goat)
3. (playing cards, stýrivolt) seven of the chosen cards (trump seven)

Declension

Derived terms

• gimburlamb (female lamb)
• veðurlamb (male lamb)

Gothic

Romanization

lamb

1. Romanization of 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lamp/
• Rhymes: -amp

Noun

lamb n (genitive singular lambs, nominative plural lömb)

1. a lamb

Declension

Derived terms

• launa lambið gráa
• ljúfur sem lamb
• vatna lömbum (compare the Old Norse krjúpa at keldu)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• lom, lomb, loomb
• lambe, lame, lamme, lombe (mainly Late Middle English)
• loumbe (West Midlands)

Etymology

From Old English lamb, from Proto-West Germanic *lamb, from Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciations with Old English lengthening before /mb/ were probably less common than in comb, womb due to levelling from the plural lambre, lambren, where such lengthening did not occur (though the spellings lamb in the Ormulum and loomb in the Wycliffite Bible indicate an unlevelled form with lengthening).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lam(b)/, /laːm(b)/, /lɔm(b)/, /lɔːm(b)/

Noun

lamb (plural lambren or lambre or lambes)

1. A lamb, its meat, or its skin.
2. A Christian believer.

Descendants

• English: lamb
• Scots: lam, lamb
• Yola: lhawm, lowem

References

• “lō̆mb, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse lamb.

Noun

lamb n (definite singular lambet, definite singular dative lambe, indefinite plural lamb or lomb, definite plural lambi or lombi, definite plural dative lambom or lombom)

1. a lamb (young sheep); (pre-1938) alternative form of lam
2. (by extension, Christianity, figurative) Christ as sacrificial lamb

Inflection

Derived terms

• lambekjøt
• påskelamb (“Passover lamb, Paschal Lamb”)

Old English

Alternative forms

• lemb, lomb, lomber

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɑmb/

Noun

lamb n (nominative plural lambru)

1. lamb

Declension

West Saxon: Strong z-stem:

Anglian:

Descendants

• Middle English: lamb, lomb, lambe
  • English: lamb
  • Scots: lam, lamb

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *lamb, see also Old Saxon lamb, Old English lamb, Old Norse lamb, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌼𐌱 (lamb).

Noun

lamb n

1. lamb

Declension

Descendants

• Middle High German: lamp, lam
  • Cimbrian: lamp
  • German: Lamm
  • Luxembourgish: Lamm
  • Vilamovian: łamm
  • Yiddish: לאַם (lam)

References

1. Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014
2. Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer, Second Edition

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *lambaz.

Noun

lamb n (genitive lambs, plural lǫmb)

1. a lamb

Declension

Descendants

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *lamb.

Noun

lamb n

1. lamb

Declension

Descendants

• Low German: Lamm